The invention relates to an electric motor comprising a stator, a motor shaft, and a rotor assembly which is mounted on the motor shaft by means of a hub, the rotor assembly and the hub being interconnected by radially extending flexible spokes.
Such an electric motor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,676. The known electric motor, which may be constructed for example as a synchronous motor, has a hollow rotor assembly around which the stator is arranged. The rotor assembly is mounted on a plurality of radially resilient but flexible spokes of a plastics material, which spokes are integral with the hub. The spokes constitute a flexible connection between the rotor assembly and the motor shaft and serve to take up fluctuations in rotor assembly speed in order to ensure a smooth rotation of the motor shaft.
A disadvantage of the known electric motor is that the vibrations produced in the motor by torque fluctuations cannot be kept under control in a satisfactory manner, so that a specific frequencies annoying resonant effects may occur.
It is to be noted that the use of energy-absorbing elements in an electric motor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,226,579. In this known motor the rotor assembly is journalled on the motor shaft by means of sleeve bearings and is secured to the shaft by a special elastic coupling. The absorbing elements which are constructed as cushions constitute an elastic part of the coupling. This known motor has the disadvantage that its resonant frequency is difficult to predict.